Hospital workers honor Corey Borg-Massanari, Vail local who died in avalanche [video]

The “Organ Donor Walk of Honor,” will now become a tradition for the new Mexico hospital staff.

A Vail local who died in an avalanche in Taos last week was honored by hundreds of medical staffers lining the halls at the University of New Mexico Hospital as he was wheeled into his final operation to become an organ donor.

Corey Borg-Massanari, 22, was one of two men buried in an inbounds avalanche at Taos Ski Valley on Jan. 17. The slide occurred near the 12,400-foot Kachina Peak just before noon. The Taos News reported that medical teams had worked to keep Borg-Massanari alive for roughly three days before it was determined he would not survive. He had previously signed up to become an organ donor before his unexpected death.

The silent and tearful gesture was the first time the hospital conducted the “Organ Donor Walk of Honor,” which will become a new tradition for its staff.

Borg-Massanari was born in Pueblo, raised in Minnesota and recently moved to Vail, where he attended Colorado Mountain College and worked at Patagonia in Vail Village and would often go skiing on his lunch break, his family said. During the summer months, he was a zipline tour guide for Zip Adventures at 4 Eagle Ranch.